It was a question that was scheduled to come up in about three months, but one that has been pushed to the fore thanks to recent events. And it is as difficult to find an answer now as it’s ever been: How much is Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, really worth?

I’ve always thought that the worst thing that could have happened to Jennings was that 55—point game he had in November of 2009, his rookie year. Jennings was still very much an unknown commodity at that point — he skipped college to play in Italy for a year, remember – but that game, just the seventh of his career, immediately defined him.

The future-star label was affixed to Jennings’ lapel, he was the steal of the ’09 draft, and the Knicks were ripped for having chosen Jordan Hill over him. It was part of a terrific stretch for Jennings, in which he averaged 31.0 points and 51.1 percent shooting in six games.

Jennings has been chasing that stretch ever since, but he has simply not been that good on a consistent basis. After those six games, he failed to hit the 20-point mark in his next seven games, averaging 15.0 points on 30.9 percent shooting. He scored 20-plus points 14 times for the rest of the year, and reached 30 only once. He became then what he has been for the rest of his career – a player who has the capability of going off for 50 points, but who is mostly a high-volume shooter and inefficient scorer.

And a subpar defender, to boot. It was his defense that brought Jennings’ game into focus this week, as coach Jim Boylan sat him for nearly all of the second half of a loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday. Boylan didn’t like Jennings’ effort against point guard Jrue Holiday, and benched Jennings, who was scoreless on two shots. Jennings was, naturally, not happy. Boylan’s predecessor, Scott Skiles, had long handled Jennings with kid gloves, hoping to coax improvement out of his point man with kindness. Boylan, though, has been tougher on Jennings.

As quoted by Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jennings said: “This is the third time I’ve been benched in the second half and it hasn’t been under Skiles. You always want to be out there to help your team. I don’t see any All—Stars in this locker room so I think everybody should be held accountable, like anybody else. There’s no maxed—out players in this locker room, there’s no All—Stars. So don’t try to put me on a pedestal and just give everybody else the freedom to do whatever they want.”

So what do you pay a guy like Jennings?

Sure, he has upside, but he has not lived up to it, and hasn’t taken many steps forward as his career has gone on. He had his best season last year, and warranted All-Star consideration, as he posted 19.1 points on 41.8 percent shooting, with a player efficiency rating of 18.4. But he has regressed this year, averaging 17.2 points and a career-high 6.6 assists, but with an efficiency rating of 16.2 and making just 39.7 percent of his shots. That ranks 177th in the league. Only one player – Utah’s Randy Foye – averages double—digit scoring with a field-goal percentage that poor.

At the start of this year, three of Jennings’ fellow point guards from the ’09 draft (Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday and Ty Lawson) got contract extensions ranging from $4-$48 million over four years. Based on reputation, Jennings might appear to be worth a similar deal. But based on how he has actually played, and the fact that he has struggled to improve, it’s a different story.

“Apart from guys who are injured, he is probably the biggest risk out of any free agent this year,” one general manager said. “Because you know what he can do. You can look at him and see what he might be. Someone is going to pay him based on that, and they might give him something like what Holiday or Lawson got. But he has been in the league four years now. If it was me paying him that much, I would want to know for sure that he is getting better every year.”

What’s going on in Milwaukee now down the stretch is a microcosm of Jennings’ situation.

Boylan sees him as a player who can be benched for poor play like any other. Jennings sees himself in a different light. In the offseason, if he hopes to get a payday along the lines of his peers, Jennings will have to find a team willing to see him in that light, too.